The Caffeinated Mom Gardens

Monday, July 19, 2010

This post is part of Daphne's Harvest Monday. Click here to join in on the fun!

What a weird week we had here in Georgia.. It RAINED! ..and rained, and rained, and rained some more. Of course, the rain started about 20 minutes after I gave the garden a good soaking with the hose. Murphy's Law is always applicable to my life.

Because of all the rain, I didn't get out to harvest quite as much as I would have liked - and I didn't get pictures of everything I did harvest (surprise, surprise). The good news is that my peppers are growing and flowering like crazy. And hopefully next week will bring a few new items to my harvest tally.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Every now and then I get restless. Nothing is stocked up in my freezer and my pantry is bare. It no longer contains stocks of apple sauce or jam or meyer lemon marmalade, but rather packages containing trace amounts of Cheez-Its and a half-empty box of Bisquick that was purchased in a moment of frenzy. It's completely pathetic and makes me feel rather uneasy.

I knew I'd have the house to myself all day, so I did what any normal, sane girl would do. I went to Kroger - and came back with this:

I would have preferred organic, but I was unable to find any organic orchards nearby, and the Whole Foods price was $3.00 / lb. Kroger's were $0.88 / lb.

I figured I'd be washing, blanching, and peeling - most of the research I did confirmed that this process would remove approximately 90% of pesticides, so - not quite as good as organic, but certainly a better value!

Then I counted the peaches and panicked at the enormity of the project ahead of me - so I called in reinforcements. Thankfully, my mother lives right around the corner and she was happy to come over and peel peaches all day. According to her, she doesn't get to see me enough, so she was more than willing to come over and work with me in the kitchen all day if it meant spending time with me. Awwwwww... For a minute, I felt guilty.. but then I realized what a second set of hands in the kitchen means, so I've already started scheming our next project. ;-)

Here they are after their first bath:

After that, they were blanched and peeled, pitted and quartered. Then I used some to make low-sugar jam. By using no sugar needed pectin, I was able to cut the sugar back from 7 1/2 cups to 1 1/2 cups without compromising flavor or palitability.. and without using artificial sweeteners. In fact, I think it tastes better! One recipe made 3 pints of jam.

After that, I canned 7 quarts and 1 pint of quartered peaches in a very light syrup. And after that, I was too tired to spend more time hot water bath canning, so I froze another 4 quarts of sugared peaches and 3 quarts of plain peaches in zip-top bags. Two more cups didn't make it through the preservation process - they were used in a very yummy impromptu peach cobbler. Apparently you can't screw up cobbler topping if it includes cream and butter. Yum!

I wanted to make some fruit leather, but ran out of time and energy. Thank goodness peach season isn't over yet!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Remember those unidentified green orbs I told you about last week? Here they are again, in case you don't remember:

Well, my curiousity got the best of me tonight. When I was picking squash for tonight's dinner, I plucked one of the green orbs off the plant for dissection:

Here is the orb:

Here is what was inside:

And just to be certain, I searched Google Images, where I confirmed that I do indeed have a fruiting.....

TOMATILLO PLANT!!!

Which is completely amazing, because I only transplanted one tomatillo plant, and it is clear across the garden. There were some other seed cells I had attempted to start tomatillos in, but they never germinated so I haphazardly tossed the leftover soil into the garden ben one night, in a fit of hopelessness... Oh - I see what happened!

Regardless, tomatillos must really love my Georgia soil and climate, because that plant had no babying and has completely outgrown all my well-cared-for tomatoes. It's a good thing my husband loves salsa verde, because it looks like tomatillos will be a staple in our garden from here on out!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

2) Nothing is producing in this unrelenting heat - even me (I won't mention that I'm still wearing pajamas, but at least I have showered today..). He is the only one who knows how to beat the heat:

3) My blueberry bushes appear to be goners. I'm not sure what is wrong with them, but the leaves are turning red from the tips in, then shriveling up and falling off. It doesn't look good:

4) I have a mystery plant. According to my highly technical method of tracking what I planted (a free-hand graph doodled on the back of an envelope), it's supposed to be a melon. But I've never seen a melon PLANT (not vine) grow straight upwards - it's now about 2 feet tall. The flowers resemble tomatillo flowers, and they turn into green orbs that feel like they're hollow (see below). I can't imagine I mis-seeded a tomatillo, though, because I planted those months earlier in pots. Here are some photos of the mystery plant:

5) It won't be long before I get to try my first patty pan squashes. I just need to decide how to prepare them. There are 2 or 3 about this size:

6) There is no reason for anyone to own a magnifying mirror. And I most certainly do not recommend that you peer into one, especially just weeks before a mile-stone birthday.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The rest of the garden has grown quite a bit over the last few weeks, although the heat is definitely taking a toll. I feel like a deep watering once a day just isn't enough - but it's the best I can do right now!

My zucchini and squash bed has really taken off, although one enormous zucchini plant might be stealing sunlight from the rest. The pictures don't do it justice, but here's the monster zucchini:

And the "normal" zucchini and squash plants:

Also in the squash bed are a few melons. They're beginning to grow and flower as well:

The rest of my tomatoes are growing. Some are beginning to flower. And some are even setting fruit:

What is that?Yes!! These are the tomatoes I've been the most excited to try. They came from Jo at 14 Acres, who was so generous to share some seed.

The tomatillos are flowering as well, but don't seem to be setting fruit:

My bell peppers are beginning to flower like crazy.

I have 7 California Wonder Plants, 1 Jalopeno plant, and 2 Poblano Plants. They are really beginning to set some yummy looking fruit. I can't wait to grill this baby!

And my herbs are doing well. I don't have a picture of the rosemary, but it's hanging in there. The basil is enjoying the heat:

and so is the sage:

I need to think of some good recipes that call for sage. Any suggestions?

Monday, June 21, 2010

This week the garden brought more tomatoes and cucumbers.. and this is just the beginning! I'll give a complete update tomorrow, but I have good reasons to hope that these little harvests are just the beginning.

This week we also saw our first (and close to last) blueberries, the first cutting of basil (which was wonderful as pesto and tossed in salads), and our first jalopenos. They began to darken due to sun scald, so I'll need to figure out how to prevent that asap.